108 replies to this topic

[Lendorien]

I really think you did a great Job on this list. You give a synopsis, and then explain why it's worth our time. Screenshots and gameplay videos help seal the deal. What also helps is that you don't choose the obvious titles.  I like that your give the current running pricing. Granted, that might become dated over time, but it gives one an idea of what's in reach or not.  There are a bunch of titles here that I've never heard of, but I'm going to be looking into a few of them based on your reviews.

[Satoshi Matrix]

good news everyone!

I've finally got the next installment in my ongoing look at the best NES and Famicom games ever. Here's #19-11. Enjoy and feel free to leave your comments!

http://satoshimatrix...mes-list-19-11/

[Satoshi Matrix]

I'm just going to give this a bit a bump since I'm sure that many retro gamers will enjoy reading this next entry. I hope the lack of responses doesn't mean a lack of interest.

[BillyHW]

Wow, great effort.  But the list is too long for one system.

[thegoldenband]

I'm glad to see this project is still going.  A list like this is tricky, because things tend to get more pro forma and predictable once you approach the top 10, but you've done a good job of changing things up with some unexpected choices.

I have to admit that the formatting is a little hard to parse.  For some reason I didn't notice it on other entries, but here it gets to be difficult to physically read the text.  Maybe a little more "blackspace" would be useful?

BTW Mega Man 3 has a significant bug very early in the game (display error on the robot selection screen), so I'm not surprised to hear it was a bit rushed!

[Drixxel]

thegoldenband, on Thu Jan 19, 2012 3:00 PM, said:

BTW Mega Man 3 has a significant bug very early in the game (display error on the robot selection screen), so I'm not surprised to hear it was a bit rushed!

You know, I've always wondered about that.  It baffled me from the earliest times playing the game that something so obviously wrong couldn't possibly have slipped through Q&A, I figured it had to be some issue with my cart, my NES or the connection betwixt.  Could the high jump activated by holding right on controller 2's d-pad be a remnant of debugging?

Satoshi Matrix, kudos on seeing the list through to the end (that's a lot of writing!), looking forward to the top ten.  I don't think I've ever encountered such praise for Power Blade.

[BillyHW]

I had Mega Man 3 and never experience that error.

[thegoldenband]

Drixxel, on Sat Jan 21, 2012 12:52 AM, said:

You know, I've always wondered about that.  It baffled me from the earliest times playing the game that something so obviously wrong couldn't possibly have slipped through Q&A, I figured it had to be some issue with my cart, my NES or the connection betwixt.

When I was troubleshooting my 72-pin connector recently, it threw me for a loop!  It's a well-known issue -- in fact, I think it's been used as a minor-league litmus test for accurate NES emulation.  BTW Rockman 3 has the exact same problem, at least in Nestopia.

Drixxel, on Sat Jan 21, 2012 12:52 AM, said:

Could the high jump activated by holding right on controller 2's d-pad be a remnant of debugging?

It certainly would make sense -- other similar tricks have been debug leftovers.

BillyHW, on Sat Jan 21, 2012 12:55 AM, said:

I had Mega Man 3 and never experience that error.

Unless there's a ROM variant, you probably did experience it and just didn't notice it, or figured it was just a minor malfunction of the kind that the NES so often has.  It's very minor, and certainly I didn't make anything of it when I played and beat the game in the early 1990s.

Here's a picture of the glitch.  It's a little tiny flickering bit above Shadow Man's block in the robot selection screen, which displaces part of that row of pixels to the left, affecting both the block and the background:

[Satoshi Matrix]

Yeah. Megaman 3 is the buggiest of the NES games.

Check out my original Megaman 3 review for more examples of the game being rushed to completion.
http://satoshimatrix...n-3-review-nes/

You can also find more interesting examples of its debug past here.
http://tcrf.net/Mega_Man_3

Anyway thank you guys for the interest so far! The top 10 is well underway, so please look forward to it in the near future!

[atarilovesyou]

Dude, no worries, your blog is my favorite and I'm glad you put in the work to make it happen! It's really turned me on to some games I've never heard of...nor did I realize they existed at all! I'm only sad that it's gonna end soon, lol!

Who knows, maybe you can come up with some more lists like this...I don't know how, but I'm seriously diggin' your suggestions!

[Satoshi Matrix]

thank you so much. I indeed to plan on doing all sorts of top games lists. The next one will probably be Top 50 SNES games. I also have strong opinions on the Original Xbox, GameCube and PS2, amongst others.

[Lendorien]

I haven't played enough games to be able to do a top 100 list of anything. Where do you find the time!

[Satoshi Matrix]

Alrighty guys, I've decided the best way to tackle the final top 10 is individual posts once a day for the next ten days. This way allows individual comments to be left for each entry, allows me time to write the next one without keeping you waiting for the whole thing, and avoids a monstrously large final post that would dwarf any I've done before. It will be a little bit better for everyone in my estimation.

Of course, you needn't agree with my choices, I'm just sounding my voice. I do hope for a discussion about these though, as they represent my absolutely favorites.

So here's #10.

http://satoshimatrix...-games-list-10/

[atarilovesyou]

Sounds awesome!...just stick to your guns, write what you wanna write about.  It's by far the best games list/discussion/exposure for NES I've read, so thanks!

[BillyHW]

Great review.  Never played Kirby but now I want to.  I stopped playing my NES as soon as the SNES came out.

[Satoshi Matrix]

Yeah that's what a lot of people did....sucks to be them.

As promised, here's #9. http://satoshimatrix...012/03/03/3415/

let the comments flow!

[atarilovesyou]

Hmmm, you do like your platformers!  I was never much of a fan, but I do remember Kirby.  I remembered it from the Gameboy (as well as Gargoyles Quest) so when it came to the NES, I wasn't expecting much.  I borrowed it from a friend in the late 90s and from what I remembered it was a fun, if not kinda easy, game.  Lots of mini-games and the graphics were great considering the time.

Little Samson...never played it, but I'll give it a shot on my powerpak when it arrives.

[BillyHW]

This is getting exciting.  I had never heard of Little Samson.  Reminds me of Wonder Boy III on Sega Master System, especially the mouse character.

[Satoshi Matrix]

#8.

http://satoshimatrix...m-games-list-8/

[Satoshi Matrix]

Okay, moving on to #7! This one was pretty exhausting. I rewatched several documentaries and did quite a bit of research and fact checking on my own for this, and even got some help by the great Frank Cifaldi of the lostlevels.org. I hope you guys enjoy!

http://satoshimatrix...m-games-list-7/

[godslabrat]

I am really, really enjoying this list.  I've never read a "Top X NES Games" list that had even a tenth of the thought put into it that this one has.  The NES is my favorite system, and it's great to see someone give it the love it deserves.

[Satoshi Matrix]

godslabrat, on Mon Mar 5, 2012 11:39 AM, said:

I've never read a "Top X NES Games" list that had even a tenth of the thought put into it that this one has.

Thanks. I hate to toot my own horn, but this was my goal right from the start. I saw other top 10's, even a few top 100's. And in list after list, you'd get maybe a paragraph explaining it, one tiny jpeg, and the overall impression the person doing the list played the game for less than five minutes. Not only that, but I've seen some truly terrible choices on some lists. No matter what reality you live in,  Deadly Towers or Bokosuka Wars do not constitute the best of anything.

So right from the get go I set my goal as to write my personal top 100 list that's better than any other existing list. It is gratifying to hear other people think I've achieved that.

[Satoshi Matrix]

#6. This is getting exciting now!

http://satoshimatrix...m-games-list-6/

[BillyHW]

I always felt that my intelligence was insulted when they wouldn't import some JRPG because some no-nothing exec claimed that North American gamers wouldn't go for it.  What a load of crap.

And it made economic sense too.  The game was already made for goodness sake!  Is translation really so expensive?  It's seems like a no-brainer to expand your potential market for a game.

[Satoshi Matrix]

It wasn't as simple as all that. RPGs at the time did NOT sell in North America. Gamers were confused by them, found them boring. Enix lost a TON of money on every Dragon Warrior title they localized. They had produced a massive amount of Dragon Warrior 1 carts thinking it would sell as it did in Japan but when nobody was buying them, Nintendo began giving them away as subscriber bonuses for their oh-so-beloved propaganda magizine, Nintendo Power, which was pretty much the internet of its day.

Then Enix published Dragon Warrior, II, III and even Dragon Warrior IV. These were bad choices for the publisher as it cost them a lot and the return on their investment was so little.

It seems weird to think that there was a time when RPGs were not king of the world, but tastes change over time. RPGs lack of popularity is also one of the key factors in the death of Earth Bound being released in 1991.



Anyway, here's #5. I really, really love this game.
http://satoshimatrix...m-games-list-5/